Calendar of Events

Land for food: land use and sustainable food governance of city regions

Following up on the inaugural conference "HUNGRY CITY, Feeding the city of tomorrow" held in December 2012, the International Urban Food Network (IUFN) organizes, in partnership with UNESCO, an international meeting around the challenges of sustainable food governance of city regions.

The sharing of natural resources, their allocation, the choice of their use, the management of conflicts that may arise from different land uses: these are some of the core issues of food governance in city-regions. Without land, we cannot think of alternatives of re-regionalisation of our food system. Without land, there is no room for debate around the potential for increasing local food self-sufficiency.

Today, with a growing world population and an increasing concentration of humans in urban areas, local authorities are facing a daunting challenge - balancing urban development and preserving the land on which our food system relies. How can these social changes be translated in terms of space and land use planning? What influence can they have on land use, on farmland preservation? What is the future of farmland as a territorial resource? How to reconcile and / or align land use policies with local food policies?

Held over two days, the provisional program of the LAND FOR FOOD international meeting is built on interaction. First, an Open forum will allow to take the time to deconstruct some commonly held beliefs. Then, participants will be invited into the future through ‘Land for food by 2050’ foresight scenarios. And finally, discussions will take place in 12 multi-disciplinary co-design workshops, resolutely oriented towards practical innovation.

The meeting is organized under the patronage of the Pavillon France – Exposition Universelle Milan 2015, in partnership with UNESCO and the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, General Commission for Sustainable Development.